North Korea threatened Friday to retaliate against South Korea for seeking to punish it at the United Nations over the deadly sinking of a warship, the nuclear-armed nation' second harsh reaction in a week.South Korea officially asked the UN Security Council last week to censure North Korea for what Seoul says was a torpedo attack on one of its warships that killed 46 sailors. A multinational investigation led by South Korea said last month that North Korea was the culprit. North Korea has denied responsibility and threatened to respond to retaliatory measures put in place by Seoul with "all-out war."
North Korea again wielded its trademark harsh rhetoric Friday to warn the South of possible consequences for seeking UN punishment. Last Friday's move was the first time Seoul has taken Pyongyang to the Security Council for an inter-Korean provocation. The North Korean army and people "will take merciless counter-actions as it had already clarified internally and externally," a spokesman from the National Defense Commission said in remarks carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The spokesman, whose name was not provided, accused Seoul of "infringing upon the dignity and security" of North Korea and again criticized it for not allowing Pyongyang's own inspectors to visit the South as previously demanded. Tensions on the Korea peninsula spiked last month after South Korea blamed the North for the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan.